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As highly automated ships become unmanned, their operators will move into shore-based control centers. In the last years, NTNU has built an advanced and flexible research infrastructure for performing research on autonomous ships and the monitoring and control of these. The infrastructure comprises of (1) the milliAmpere1 and milliAmpere2, which are two all-electric autonomous urban passenger ferries equipped with advanced sensors and equipment for autonomous navigation, (2) the Shore Control Lab, a flexible shore control center, where operators can monitor and control a fleet of autonomous ships, (3) a lab section for researchers to give instructions to operators in the control center, and to record, observe, and analyze their behavior, (4) an observation room adjacent to the control room for stakeholders to observe ongoing experiments in the control room, (5) the ferry simulator Autoferry Gemini that allows researchers to create challenging or high-risk scenarios where operators can be stress tested without being a danger to ship, crew and passengers, (6) the mixed reality lab MRLAB, where we can test physical designs of urban autonomous passenger ferries in a virtual environment, and (7) a dock for passenger handling and with inductive charging capabilities. In this paper, we first describe the research infrastructure’s purpose and scope of operation, as well as the technical design, physical setup, and equipment. Secondly, we present a roadmap for the development of the research infrastructure to meet the future research challenges for autonomous ships and the supervision and control of these. Thirdly, we present a number of research questions that are going to be explored in the lab in the years to come.

Autonomous ferries are providing new opportunities for urban transport mobility. With this change comes a new risk picture, which is characterised to a large extent by the safe transition from autonomous mode to manual model in critical situations. The paper presents a case study of applying an adapted risk assessment method based on the Scenario Analysis in the Crisis Intervention and Operability study (CRIOP) framework. The paper focuses on the applicability of the Scenario Analysis to address the human-automation interaction. This is done by presenting a case study applying the method on a prototype of a Human–Machine Interface (HMI) in the land-based control centre for an autonomous ferry. Hence, the paper presents findings on two levels: a method study and a case study. A concept of operation (CONOPS) and a preliminary hazard analysis lay the foundation for the scenario development, the analysis, and the discussion in a case study workshop. The case study involved a Scenario Analysis of a handover situation where the autonomous system asked for assistance from the operator in a land-based control centre. The results include a list of identified safety issues such as missing procedures, an alarm philosophy and an emergency preparedness plan, and a need for explainable AI. Findings from the study show that the Scenario Analysis method can be a valuable tool to address the human element in risk assessment by focusing on the operators’ ability to handle critical situations.

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